Babahoyo. — Hospitality. S5 



tiful cocoa-palm lifts its crown of glory.* Animal life 

 does not compare with this luxuriant growth. The steam- 

 er-bound traveler may see a few monkeys, a group of galli- 

 nazos, and many brilliant, though songless birds ; but the 

 chief representative is the lazy, ugly alligator. Large num- 

 bers of these monsters may be seen on the mud-bank bask- 

 ing in the hot sun, or asleep with their mouths wide open. 

 Eight hours after leaving the Malecon we arrived at Bo- 

 degas, a little village of two thousand souls, rejoicing in 

 the synonym of Babahoyo. This has been a place of de- 

 posit for the interior from the earliest times. In the rainy 

 season the whole site is flooded, and only the upper stories 

 are habitable. Cock-fighting seems to be the chief amuse- 

 ment. We breakfasted with the governor, a portly gentle- 

 man who kept a little dry-goods store. His excellency, 

 without waiting for a formal introduction, and with a cor- 

 diality and courtesy almost confined to the Latin nations, 

 received us into his own house, and honored us with a seat 

 at his private table, spread with the choicest viands of his 

 kingdom, serving them himself witli a grace to wliich we 

 can not do justice. Much as we find to condemn in tropic- 

 al society, we can not forget the kindness of these simple- 

 hearted people. Though we may portray, in the coming 

 pages, many faults and failings according to a New York 

 standard, we wish it to be understood that there is another 

 side to the picture ; that there are virtues on the Andes to 

 which the North is well-nigh a stranger. " How many 

 times (says an American resident of ten years) I have ar- 



* The mango of Asia is superior in size and flavor to that of America. It 

 is eaten largely in Brazil by negroes and cattle. The cocoa-palm is also of 

 Asiatic origin, and is most abundant in Ceylon. It has a swollen stem when 

 young, but becomes straight and tall when mature. The flowers burst into a 

 long plume of soft, cream-colored blossoms. It is worthy of remembrance 

 that the most beautiful forms of vegetation in the tropics are at the same time 

 most useful to man. 



