266 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xiv. 



density of its population is a consequence of its fertility. Between 

 the places which have been enumerated, the whole country is 

 dotted with detached residences — Indian villas so to speak — each 

 provided with its little plot of ground, where all and more than 

 is necessary can be raised.' The daily wage of the people is said 

 to be only a medio (two-pence), yet it appeared to be sufficient for 

 their wants. They looked sleek and well-fed, and were rich 

 enough to indulge in drunkenness.^ 



Notwithstanding this drawback, it is pleasant to ride across 

 Imbabura. Foliage gives shadow, and the roads are well-beaten 

 tracks, reasonably dry. Eound about Hutantaqui and San Antonio 

 in particular, there are a great number of artificial mounds, from 

 twenty or thirty to two hundred or more feet in diameter (in form 

 resembling the pmiecillos of the Volcanoes), which are universally 

 considered to be tumuli. According to Father Velasco,^ more 

 than twelve thousand of these were erected after the defeat, on 

 the Plain of Hutantaqui, of the tribes of Cayambe, Carranqui and 

 Otovalo by the Inca monarch, Huayna-Capac. Though they are 

 very numerous, it cannot be supposed for a moment that there are 

 or ever have been 12,000 of these mounds in this locality. There 

 are others in the neighbourhood of Carranqui which are said to 

 have been investigated at various times by joint-stock companies, 

 with disappointing results. They desired gold and silver, and 

 found little except bones and pottery. 



The villages which have just been mentioned, as well as the 



1 The following things were being grown in this small district — Maize, Wheat, 

 Barle}^, Sugar-cane, Cotton ; Peas, Lentils, French-beans, Potatoes, Yuca, Parsnips, 

 Lettuce, Cabbages, and other ordinary vegetables ; Bananas, Cherries, Strawberries, 

 Chirimoya, Lemons, Oranges, and Grapes. 



2 Until our arrival in Imbabura, we had not seen half-a-dozen intoxicated 

 persons in Ecuador ; but when returning upon the 25th of April, in the little 

 distance between Cotocachi and Otovalo, we passed three men who were dead drunk, 

 a score of others badly inebriated, and many— including women — in a more or less 

 advanced condition. 



3 Histoire dn Royaume de Quito, par Don Juan de Velasco (translated by H. 

 Ternaux-Compans), 8vo, Paris, 1840 ; vol. i, p. 53. 



