Ch.V. south AMERICA. 157 



are frefh-coloured, and fo finely featured, as juftly to 

 be ftyled the handfomeft, both in the province of 

 Quito, and even in all Peru. Two things are here 

 the more remarkable, as being contrary to common 

 obfervation ; one, that, notwithftanding the heat of 

 the climate, its natives are not tawny; the other, 

 that, though the Spaniards have not naturally fo fair 

 a comiplexion as the northern nations, their children 

 born here of Spanifh women are very fair ; nor has 

 this phenomenon hitherto been fufficiently explain- 

 ed. To attribute it to the effluvia exhaling from the 

 contiguous river, appears to me little fatisfadlory j 

 other cities having the fame advantageous fituation, 

 without producing any improvement in the com- 

 plexions of the inhabitants ; whereas here fair per- 

 sons are the moil common, and the children have 

 univerfally light hair and eye-brows, and very beau- 

 tiful faces. 



To thefe perfonal advantages bellowed by nature 

 in a diftinguiflied m.anner on the inhabitants, it has 

 added the no lefs pleafing charms of elegance and 

 politenefs \ fo that feveral Europeans, who intended 

 only a fhort ilay here, have married and fettled ; 

 nor were their marriages owing to the immenfe for- 

 tunes of their ladies, as in fome other cities of this 

 country, the inhabitants not being at all famous for 

 their riches. 



The drefs of the women at Guayaquil nearly re- 

 fembles that at Panama, except only when they either 

 pay or receive a vifit ; inftead of the pollera, they 

 wear a faldellin, which is not longer than the pollera^ 

 but, being open before, and croffing one fide over 

 the other, is adorned in the moil profufe manner. It 

 is furbeloed with a richer ftuff, near half a yard in 

 depth, and bordered with fine laces, gold or fringe, 

 or ribbands, difpofed v/ith an air which renders the 

 drefs extremely rich and becoming. Vv^lien they go 

 abroad without a veil, they wear a light brown-co- 

 loured 



