260 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



to say, be counted on the fingers' ends. Many of the inland towns have not a 

 single foreign resident. 



But the inhabitants of the conterminous Colombian and Peruvian states, 

 who can scarcely be regarded as aliens, freely cross the frontiers and settle in the 

 territory of Ecuador. In the provinces of Carchi and Esmeraldas especially, the 

 white, half-caste, and black immigrants from Colombia, numbering about 40,000, 

 already form a considerable section of the population ; which, however, differs 

 little from the native element. 



Ecuador, a country of old Spanish and aristocratic traditions, is also a country 

 of vast landed estates. One proprietor is lord of Cayambe, Sara-Urcu and all the 

 intervening plains and valleys. Another owns Antisana, vpith the farmsteads 

 and cattle-runs of the whole disti'ict, while towards the Amazons his domain is 

 boundless : " The land is his as far as you can go eastwards." 



The result is that the bulk of the population are serfs, almost slaves, still 

 burdened with debt, an oppressed generation whose woeful condition is disguised 

 under the name of concertados, by contraction conciertos, as if their wretched 

 plight were the effect of " free contract." The plough has not yet made its 

 appearance in all the provinces, while few are the haciendas where the wayfarer 

 can get so much as a cup of milk to quench his thirst. In some of the remote 

 southern valleys the natives are said still to thrash out the corn by dancing on 

 the ears with heavy clogs ; hence it is not surprising that wheat-flour hus to be 

 imported from California and Chili. 



Stock-breeding constitutes the chief industry on the plateaux, where certain 

 runs, such as the ha(o of Antisana, contain over 5,000 cows, besides sheep and 

 horses. Even some of the Indians, robbed of their lands, at least own sheep, which 

 they graze on the bleak paramos. Besides the natural pastures lucerne is also 

 grown as fodder in favourable localities. 



But midway up the mountains the most profitable plantations are those of the 

 coffee shrub, replaced on the plains lower down by sugar and cacio, of which the 

 latter yields the best returns in Ecuador. Guayaquil also exports a large quantity 

 of tagua, or vegetable ivory ; which, however, is not cultivated, but grows wild in 

 the forests. 



Of the numerous mining districts that of Zaruma alone is worked with 

 energy. Other industries, represented at Guayaquil by large steam factories, are 

 undeveloped farther inland. Even the home industries of weaving and straw- 

 hat plaiting, in the hands of the women, are yielding to foreign competition, 

 which gluts the market with cheaper but greatly inferior goods. Possessing no 

 cotton-mills or other large manufactures, Ecuador is compelled to import from 

 the United States and Europe nearly all manufactured wares, taking them in 

 exchange for the natural products of the land. This foreign trade, almost 

 entirely concentrated in Guayaquil, represents an annual value of from 

 £2,000,000 to £3,000,000, or about forty shillings per head of the population, a 

 proportion lower than that of most countries within the sphere of European 

 civilisation. The traffic is carried on, in order of importance, chiefly with France, 



