258 SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



to yield the large quantities of gold wliich formerly earned for it the title of 

 Sevllla de Oro. 



Between Cuenca and Jiro», overlooking the old lacustrine plain of Tarqui, stands 

 the "Pyramid Mountain," so named from the signal setup by La Condamine at 

 the extremity of his chain of triangles taken for the measurement of the meri- 

 dian. The carriage-road which is to connect Cuenca with the port of Naranjal 

 over the Cajas Pass has been scarcely begun. 



Although less healthy than Cuenca, the sanatorium of south Ecuador, the 

 town of Loja is perhaps better situated for traffic, standing as it does at an 

 altitude of 7,300 feet, the most favourable under the torrid zone, and at a point in 

 the Cordillera which would present the least ditEculty but for the horrible road. 

 But despite its advantages Loja has diminished in population. Owing to the 

 destruction of its cinchona-trees it has lost the export trade in bark, of which it 

 had formerly a monopoly. The town of Zamora, on the river of the same name, 

 which served as its eastern outlet towards the Amazons, has also ceased to exist, 

 its Indian inhabitants having either perished or dispersed. 



Lorjrono, on the Bio Pau te, has similarly disappeared under an exuberant 

 forest growth, and solitude reigns in a region which seemed destined to become 

 the great trans-continental highway between Guayaquil and Para. "With a 

 railway constructed across the southern uplands of Ecuador from the Pacific coast 

 to the head of the navigation on the Paute or the Zamora, the continent might 

 be traversed in a week from ocean to ocean. 



South of Loja is situated the upland valley of Plscobamha, where, according 

 to the Indian legend, are buried the heaps of gold sent from Quito to Cajamarca 

 to ransom the Inca Atahuallpa. Many fortune-hunters have been ruined in their 

 vain quest for these treasures. 



VIL 



Material Condition of Ecuador. 



Of all the Hispano- American republics Ecuador has been the least modified 

 under the influence of European customs and ideas. On the elevated plateaux, 

 always difficult of access, the Quichua, Canar, and Puruha natives scarcely 

 changed their social habits in the presence of a handful of whites, themselves 

 almost cut off from all intercourse with their fellow-countrymen elsewhere. The 

 first collision had been terrible and decisive, and after the battles, massacres and 

 epidemics the surviving Indians had been fain to adapt themselves to a new 

 political system, to work for new masters, to give up the road to the old places 

 of pilgrimage, and to worship at new shrines. 



But once this transformation was effected, the descendants of the Quitu and 

 kindred nations, but slightly crossed with the ethnical element of European origin, 

 maintained themselves without further change. Their conservative spirit was 

 subjected to no fresh strain, and the whole population remained docile and sub- 



