THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON. 



CHAPTER I. 



Guayaquil. — First and Last Impressions. — Climate. — Commerce. — The 

 Malecon. — Glimpse of the Andes. — Scenes on the Guayas. — Bodegas. — 

 Mounted for Quito. — La Moua. — A Tropical Forest. 



Late in the evening of the 19th of July, 1867, the steam- 

 er " Favorita" dropped anchor in front of the city of Guay- 

 aquil. The first view awakened visions of Oriental splen- 

 dor. Before us was the Malecon, stretching along the riv- 

 er, two miles in length — at once the most beautiful and the 

 most busy street in the emporium of Ecuador. In the cen- 

 tre rose the Government House, with its quaint old tower, 

 bearing aloft the city clock. On either hand were long 

 rows of massive, apparently mai'ble, three-storied buildings, 

 each occupying an entire square, and as elegant as they 

 were massive. Each story was blessed with a balcony, the 

 upper one himg with canvas curtains now rolled up, the 

 other protruding over the sidewalk to form a lengthened 

 arcade like that of the Rue de Rivoli in imperial Paris. 

 In this lower story were the gay shops of Guayaquil, filled 

 with the prints, and silks, and fancy articles of England 

 and France. As this is the promenade street as well as the 

 Broadway of commerce, crowds of Ecuadorians, who never 

 do business in the evening, leisurely paced the magnificent 

 arcade ; hatless ladies sparkling with fire-flies* instead of 



* The Pyrophorus noctilucus, or " cucujo," found also in Mexico and the 

 West Indies. It resembles our large spring-beetle. The light proceeds from 

 two eye-like spots on the thorax and from the segments underneath. It feeds 



