SOCIAL CONDITION OF ECUADOR. 259 



missive to their secular and religious masters, without betraying the least dis- 

 position to revolt. The later political movements had their origin, not in the 

 lower strata of society, but exclusively in Quito and the other cities, where the 

 Creoles of Spanish descent felt themselves outraged in a thousand ways by the 

 privileges and arrogance of the fresh arrivals from the peninsula. Lawyers 

 ousted from their lucrative positions by young Spanish favourites were the 

 instigators of the first rising, which took place in 1809 at Quito, "in the name 

 of the legitimate sovereign, Ferdinand YII., and of the holy Roman Catholic 

 Church." But the mass of the nation took no part in this outbreak, which was 

 soon crushed by a general massacre. 



Agricij.ture — Trade — I^^DUSTR1ES. 



Nevertheless, since the War of Independence and the constitution of an 

 autonomous republic in Ecuador, the new order of things has necessarily been 

 followed by certain changes in the social condition of the people. Some of the 

 rural classes have been attracted to the large towns by the development of trade, 

 and in a less measure by the awakened thirst for knowledge. Following at a 

 long distance the example of the United States, Australia and other commercial 

 and industrial lands, Ecuador presents the phenomenon of a gradual concentration 

 of its inhabitants gravitating round the various centres of the population. Of the 

 sixteen provinces those possessing the three largest cities — Pichincha with Quito, 

 Guayas with Guayaquil, and Azuay with Cuenca — contain far more than one-third 

 of all the inhabitants. 



Racial crossings, moi'e developed in the urban than in the rural districts, tend 

 to blend the ethnical elements in which Indian blood predominates, and at the 

 same time diffuse European political and social sentiments. The inter-Andean 

 region, where have sprung up all the towns, properly so called, except Guayaquil, 

 may be regarded as practically constituting the whole of Ecuador, viewed from 

 the standpoint of wealth and culture. Thus the vast province of Esmeraldas, 

 perhaps the richest in natural resources, but lying in the hot zone beyond the 

 Andean plateau, has according to the official returns only a hundredth part of the 

 population. The province of Oriente, also, which alone comprises one-half of the 

 territory, would appear to have only about 80,000 inhabitants, about as many as 

 Plymouth, or any other second-rate English city. 



Immigration — Social Condition. 



The movement of immigration, except to Guayaquil, remains insignificant, 

 despite the efforts of various financial companies, amongst others, an English 

 association, to which the Government has conceded 1,750,000 acres on the banks 

 of the Pailon and in the eastern forests. A small German colony has been 

 established in the Cordillera about the sources of the Eio Toachi ; but even in the 

 capital, foreigners of all classes — ^professionals, artisans and labourers — may, so 



