SOCIAL CONDITION OF ECUADOR. 261 



Great Britain, tlie United States, and Spain, the foreign shipping being more 

 than half British. 



Communications — Education. 



In 1893 Ecuador still possessed only one carriage-road and one railway, the 

 former 100 miles long, between Quito and Riobamba, the latter 63 miles long, 

 between Duran, opposite Guayaquil, and the foot of the Andes. At the bridge 

 spanning the Rio Chimbo the line is distant only 15 miles in a straight line from 

 Sibambe, the nearest upland town. But so difficult is the intervening ground 

 that, according to the engineers' survey, the distance would be increased to over 

 50 miles, winding round gorges and precipices, with an average gradient of about 

 3 in 100 yards. Here the route will have to ascend from a level of 1,135 to 

 8,860 feet above the sea, and it has been doubted whether such an incline is 

 practical in a tropical climate subject to tremendous downpours, which sweep away 

 the strongest embankments, and score with deep furrows all loose soil. Even the 

 section already completed is still little utilised for the transport of goods to the 

 plateaux, owing to the lack of pack-animals except along the old familiar route 

 by Babahoyo. Hence forwarders prefer the difficult and, at times, eveu dangerous 

 route by the southern foot of Chimborazo (15,660 feet). The Guamani Pass, on 

 the road from Quito to the Rio Napo, is almost equally elevated, and still more 

 dangerous, because less frequented and more neglected. 



Steamers coming from the Amazons have now and then ascended the Napo 

 and the Pastaza ; but no regular service has yet been established on these or any 

 of the other navigable rivers of the eastern province. In 1893 there was a total 

 mileage of 1,074 telegraph lines, connected at Guayaquil by cable with the rest of 

 the world. 



Although slow, the progress of Ecuador is none the less real and continuous 

 in agriculture, trade and the industries. A pledge of even more rapid develop- 

 ment in the near future is afforded by the spread of primary instruction. In 

 1892 nearly 70,000 children, mostly boys, were attending the schools, where both 

 Spanish and Quichua are taught. There are also nine schools for higher, and 

 thirty-five for secondary education, besides three so-called "universities," founded 

 at Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca. 



VIII. 



Government. 



Although the republic of Ecuidor is theoretically founded on the " sove- 

 reignty " of the people, the suffrage is far from being universal. The privilege 

 of voting is, in fact, restricted to Roman Catholics, twenty-one or, if married, 

 eighteen years of age, able to read and write, and possessing an income of 200 

 sucrés (about £40). The electors may even be excluded from the voting-books 

 for misconduct, of which the administration is judge. 



