CHAP. IX. ECUADORIAN BONDS. 177 



make promises small . and greats which afterwards escape their 

 memory or are beyond their ability to perform/' 



Amongst their other salient peculiarities one may point out 

 that Punctuality, which is esteemed a virtue by some^ they seem 

 to consider a pernicious vice. Their inveterate habit of procras- 

 tination, and use of the word manana, has been a theme upon 

 which every one has written who has dealt with Ecuador. Nothing 

 is to be done to-day. Everything is jjromised for to-morrow, and 

 when the morroAV arrives it will be promised for manana again. 

 The equality of the temperature, and the equality in the length 

 of the days, and the presumption that to-morrow will be like 

 to-day, in my opinion, have much to do with this. "It would 

 be good for these people/' said Jean-Antoine, "to have a winter.'" 

 The Alpine peasant, well acquainted with its inconveniences and 

 hardships, felt that upon the whole they acted beneficially by 

 promoting habits of industry and forethought. 



It is less possible to make allowances for their general dis- 

 position to disregard the sacredness of agreements, to repudiate 

 contracts, and to advance ulterior claims. Following these prac- 

 tices, as a natural result, there is universal distrust and want of 

 confidence. They do not think the same as other people about 

 these matters ; or, to put it in a different way, their code of 

 honour is different from ours. In many countries it is considered 

 complimentary to say " Sir, your Word is as good as your Bond " ; 

 but, for reasons which need not be pointed out, one is debarred 

 from the use of that phrase in Ecuador. A foreigner at Quito, 

 concerned in trade, who from many dealings with the Ecuadorians 

 was able to speak with some authority, said to me, " I never 

 consider a transaction terminated unless I give my customer a 

 whipping.'' It appears that, in this country, the marks of the 

 whip answer in the place of a receipt-stamp. 



These observations apply solely to the white and to the hybrid 

 population. The Indians have the same hospitable instincts as 

 the Spanish-Americans, and I am inclined to characterize as their 



2 a 



