Ch. Vi. SOUTH AMERICA. i6i 



tain of tfiat name. Thefe begin Genftantly at ^oon^ 

 and continue to refrefli the earth till five or' fix in the 

 morning of the following day. The fky is alv/ays fe- 

 rene and bright, the gentleft fhowers being rarely 

 knov/n. Provifions are in greater plenty, and thofe 

 produced in the country of a very agreeable tafte, if 

 iifed while frefh. Fruits are more common, efpecially 

 melons and water melons, which are brought in large 

 balzas * to the city. But the capital advantage is the 

 remarkable falubrity of the air in that feafon. 



During the winter, tertian fevers are very com- 

 mon, and are here particularly painful and dangerous^ 

 owing partly to negledl, and partly to an averfion to 

 the ufe of the bark, being prepoffefled with a notion, 

 that on account of its hot quality it can have no good 

 effect in that climate s fo that blinded with this pre- 

 judice, without ever confulting phyficians, who would 

 undeceive them, they fuffer the diftemper to prey 

 upon them, till they are often reduced to an ir- 

 recoverable ftate. The natives of the mountains, who 

 are enured to a culd air, cannot endure that of Gua- 

 yaquil, it having a natural tendency to debilitate them ; 

 and by an intemperate ufe of its delicious fruits they 

 throw themfelves into thofe fevers, which are as com- 

 mon to them in one feafon as another. 



Besides this difeafe, which is the moil general, 

 fince the year 1 740 the black vomit has alfo made 

 its appearance, the galleons of the South-fea having, 

 on account of the v/ar, touched here in order to fe- 

 cure the treafure, among the provinces of the Cordil- 

 lera. At that time great numbers died on board the 

 fhips, together with many foreigners, but very few 

 of the natives. In faying that the galleons brought 



'* Called, by the natives, jungadas ; they are rafts made by pin- 

 ning or tying feveral bodies of fmall trees together ; the author 

 defcribes tbem particularly in the next chapter. A. 



Vol. L M this 



