CHAP. XIV. THE PROVINCE OF IMBABURA. 265 



which they listened in the most perfect silence^ and with a rapt 

 attention that shewed their respect for their spiritual leader and 

 gave evidence of thirst for information/ 



When this was over we returned to Otovalo, and on the next 

 day the Carrels went oif to Quito, accompanied by David and the 

 jovial arriero, leaving me with Verity and Cevallos. I was in very 

 indifferent health, and received here, at a time when they were 

 valuable, some attentions from the Yankee-Jew who had made 

 himself conspicuous on Good Friday, by his wrath at the tahle 

 iVliote. The language of this hybrid Hebrew was often most un- 

 parliamentary ; but he was a good-natured man, a trader before 

 everything (he would either buy your hair or sell you a watch), 

 and I endeavoured to requite his kindness when we met again at 

 the Capital. Inducing him and an intelligent cobbler to work 

 this locality in my absence, on the 28th of April I rode across 

 Imbabura to Ibarra, passing through the villages of Hutantaqui 

 and San Antonio. 



A large part of the Province is occupied by the mountains 

 Mojanda, Cotocachi, and Imbabura. The slopes of the latter 

 extend from Carranqui almost to the Lake of San Pablo, and 

 on the west commence to rise at the village of Human. The 

 fertile and cultivated portion of the Province lies principally in 

 the basin that is enclosed by the three mountains. The bottom 

 of this is not so high as those which have been already mentioned, 

 and it enjoys a happy mean between the chillness of the more 

 elevated lands, and the sultry climate of the lower ground. , To 

 this higher temperature, more than to any difference in the soil, 

 the fertility of Imbabura is to be ascribed ; and the comparative 



1 Compulsory education was established bj' Garcia Moreno in Ecuador before 

 it was introduced into Great Britain, and in 1880, in the interior, it was exceptional 

 to find a person who could not read. They had little chance, however, of obtaining- 

 anything to read. There was no book-shop in Quito, nor, I believe, in the whole 

 country. The people with whom we mixed (either Indians or half-whites) were 

 always eager to have anything read to them. In this total absence of literature, 

 and thirst for information, there was a great opportunity for a man of enterprize. 



2 M 



